Canonical answers of metropolitan John II (Prodromus; +1089): goals of creation, spirit and letter of laws, canonical and legal culture of Byzantium

The Canonical answers of Metropolitan John II (Prodromus; +1089) is one of the oldest and not yet fully understood canonical monuments of pre-Mongol Russia. Its peculiarity, which in many respects made it similar to another canonical collection - the Questioning of Kirik of Novgorod, was a rather lenient attitude towards the moral imperfections of the young Russian Christian Church, whose members still retained elements of the pagan past in their daily lives. At the same time, familiarity with the text of the Canonical Answers allows us to assume that behind the “condescension” of the Russian first hierarch something more is discerned - the desire to instill in the minds of ancient Russian confessors an idea of the height of the Byzantine Church culture. At the same time, the Metropolitan, quite obviously, distinguished between the letter and spirit of Christian laws. Such attitude of the Russian first hierarch to the canonical and legal culture of Byzantium seems unusual and worthy of attention.